Hi, I'm working on a project to examine Exchange 2010 for students at University. In a typical "information worker" scenario, each user has their own mailbox their own computer logs on everyday, perhaps launching Outlook first thing in the morning and logging off last thing at night Sizing recommendations make sense in this scenario. However, for students it's different; while they each have their own mailbox, they share computers, and only check their mailboxes intermittently. To illustrate, imagine 10,000 information workers versus 10,000 students; in both scenarios, each has their own mailbox information workers typically have their own computer; by contrast, there might only be a pool of 1,000 computers available to students - there can only be 1,000 active sessions, as opposed to 10,000 active sessions for information workers information workers have Outlook open all day; students might launch at the beginning of their session, before closing Outlook to do study/research/Facebook/whatever I haven't seen any documentation/advice on this scenario; even though I've got 10,000 mailboxes, an information worker scenario might have 10,000 active sessions everyday, but the student scenario with only a shared pool of 1,000 PCs can only have 1,000 active sessions; should I size mailbox server memory/IOPS based on active mailboxes, or on active sessions? should I size CAS based on active mailboxes, or active sessions? perhaps mailbox should be based on active mailboxes, but CAS should be based on active sessions (and hence contravening general mailbox:CAS ratio advice?) By the way, I'm aware of Live@EDU/Google Apps Education Edition. However, I still need to prepare a proposal for hosting student services on Exchange. Thanks in advance! Anwar

Hi All, I'm guessing Microsoft would call this a "deskless worker" scenario, to use their BPOS terminology. However, I still can't find anything on TechNet about sizing Exchange 2010 for deskless worker scenarios. Kind regards, Anwar

Are you aware of Microsoft's Live@EDU program? Microsoft will provide free Exchange 2010 hosting for your University. See here: http://www.microsoft.com/liveatedu/ As to your question, its difficult for MS to provide exact specifications for a given workload, which is why they provide general guidelines, but then also provide tools like loadgen to see what you can do with your hardware under several scenarios. Mike Crowley Check out My Blog!